Networking the Navy

Northrop Grumman wins CANES. (Feb 1/12)

The US Navy’s Consolidated Afloat Networks and Enterprise Services (CANES) program is designed to streamline and update shipboard networks to improve interoperability across the fleet. It will replace 5 shipboard legacy network programs to provide the common computing environment on board for command, control, intelligence and logistics. The primary goal of the CANES program is to build a secure shipboard network required for naval and joint operations, which is much easier when you consolidate and reduce the number of shipboard networks. That consolidation can also lower costs and maintenance requirements and reduce training needs, if good choices are made.

In 2010, the US Navy awarded 2 contracts, with a potential value of $1.7 billion, for the design and development of the CANES common computing environment. Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin are competing, and a single prime contractor was expected to be picked in 2011. It took until early 2012, but Northrop Grumman won.

• According to Bloomberg the FY13 President Budget submission date has been postponed from Feb. 6 to Feb. 13. Meanwhile House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) is suggesting to chip at sequestration one year at a time if rolling back the whole 10 years proves too much of a hurdle.

• Sen. Claire McCaskill [D-MO] is pushing for FAA commercial certification of a civilian “BC-17” heavy transport aircraft. DoD Buzz doesn’t seem to understand that there’s a significant global market for outside cargo delivery, and that the C-17’s short takeoff & landing capabilities could be useful to industries like mining, that operate in austere locations with smaller airstrips.

• US Army installations get together to share progress toward “NetZero” energy & waste goals.

• The Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies (RUSI) looks at [PDF] the tax revenue implications of defense acquisition choices and finds that “the tax revenues are significant; they can yield to the Exchequer [DID: i.e. Treasury] over a third of the value of the contract.”

• France just bought [in French] 29 small Cobra Mk2 robots from Eca Robotics in Toulon, for use in finding and detonating land mines.

• US SOCOM’s 75th Ranger Regiment deploys to Afghanistan with GD’s AN/PRC-154 JTRS HMS Rifleman Radio, and Android-based Itronix GD300 wearable computers.

• Even a dying satellite has lessons to teach. GPS-IIA satellite SVN-30 is doing just that for the USAF.

• The US National Weather Services’ Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System (AWIPS) is now operational at the NWS Omaha Weather Forecast Office, the 1st of 135 forecast sites to upgrade. It’s a Raytheon system.

In January 2012, Lockheed Martin Global Training and Logistics in Orlando, FL received a 5-year, $94 million cost-plus-fixed-fee, indefinite-delivery/ indefinite-quantity contract to continue supporting the USAF’s Distributed Mission Operations Center. The mission of the 705th Combat Training Squadron DMOC is to to conduct exercises, training, tactics, techniques and procedures-warfighter readiness, testing, experimentation, tactical to operational-bridged events, and standards development for USAF Air Combat Command and its allies. Their efforts range all the way up to theater-level, full spectrum combat training, test, and mission rehearsal, including Air Combat Command’s Synthetic Battlespace inter-team training events; Air Expeditionary Force-aligned, quarterly recurring Virtual Flag exercises; etc.

Lockheed Martin will continue to operate the award-winning center, building and maintaining network infrastructure, developing and maintaining associated software and hardware, and conducting distributed mission operations engineering activities at Kirkland Air Force Base, NM. The contract runs until Jan 31/17, and is managed by the AFNWC/PKE at Kirkland AFB, NM (FA9422-12-D-0001).

• Is Indonesia buying used Dutch Leopard 2 tanks? Don’t ask Indonesia’s Parliament, they don’t know.

• Sikorsky announces 35 suppliers for its S-97 Raider compound helicopter, a scout and special forces design based on its X2 technology. It’s competing to be the US Army’s next armed scout helicopter, but an “OH-58F” upgrade remains the bettor’s pick.

• Greece’s budget problems don’t change the country’s military needs. Meeting those needs retains fairly broad support there, while making their creditors equally happy.

• The latest US GAO reports on the DOD: how to increase competition in procurements that use the national security exception; Arctic capabilities. Note that the GAO recently redesigned their website for the better, these report pages are significantly more legible than in the past.

• Consultancy ICF International studied the potential for solar energy generation on DOD bases in California and Nevada and found that there’s plenty of usable space suitable for solar development, to the tune of 25,000 acres (10,000 hectares). Edwards AFB and Fort Irwin are the 2 sites with the largest potential. PDF report.

• The US National Center for Telehealth and Technology (T2) has launched a LinkedIn group for military mental health professionals.

• At an August 2011 DISA event, VMWare’s CEO discussed cloud computing and its implications for security, among other things.

• A French Mirage and a Saudi F-15 collided during a joint exercise in Saudi Arabia. The 3 pilots ejected safely.

• Australia’s Defence Department reviews undertaken in the last couple of years have tallied up to more than $20M, according to the Advertiser.

In January 2012, US Army Program Executive Office Enterprise Information Systems (PEO-EIS) issued 9 firm-fixed-price contracts, worth up to $249.8 million total over 5 years, for Enterprise Cloud Computing services. Cloud computing is a about providing computing applications and management as a service, rather than installing it as machine-specific software. Apple’s iCloud is one well-known example, and Google’s Gmail would be another, but cloud computing can encompass more than just 1 application. It’s connected to the phenomenon of virtualization, which improves back-end efficiency in data centers, but the 2 trends can exist independent of one another. The 7 contract winners are:

C2BMC in action

$980 million, 5 year main contract. (Dec 23/11)

C2BMC puts the “system” in the Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) System. At least that’s how the US Missile Defense Agency describes the Command and Control, Battle Management, and Communications (C2BMC) element. Basically, C2BMC synchronizes individual missile defense systems, sensors, and operators, which is essential to the layered missile defense approach the agency is working to develop. Since no one system is foolproof, layered system is designed to destroy enemy ballistic missiles by tracking and engaging them in all phases of flight, from boost, mid-course, and terminal phases of ballistic missiles. Tying all that together is a real challenge, since these systems weren’t all designed from the outset to operate together.

Some elements of the USA’s current missile warning and defense architecture include DSP and SBIRS satellites, Aegis BMD ships, Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD), Patriot anti-air missile defense, and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) batteries, along with flexible dual-use elements like the Patriot PAC-3, other sensors that might be plugged into the network, and other elements that will be developed in future…

• What C2BMC Does [updated]
• Contracts and Key Events [updated]
• Additional Readings
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LPD-17 cutaway

Up to $111M for LPD 26/27 electronics. (Nov 22/11)

LPD-17 San Antonio class amphibious assault support vessels are just entering service with the US Navy. Between 10-11 scheduled ships of this new class are slated to assume the functional duties of up to 41 previous ships. Much like their smaller predecessors, their mission is to embark, transport, land, and support elements of a US Marine Corps Landing Force. What changes are the ships’ size, their cost, and the capabilities and technologies used to perform those missions. Among other additions, this new ship is designed to operate accompanying platforms like the Marines’ MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft, and amphibious armored personnel carriers like the AAV7 Amtracs.

While its design incorporates notable advances, the San Antonio Class has encountered more than its share of teething problems. So, too, has the New Orleans shipyard to which most of this contract was assigned. The number of serious issues encountered in this ship class have been much higher than usual, and more extensive. The initial ships have been criticized, often, for sub-standard workmanship, and it took 2 1/2 years after the initial ship of class was delivered before any of them could be sent on an operational cruise. Whereupon the USS San Antonio promptly found itself laid up Bahrain, due to oil leaks. It has not been the only ship of this class to encounter serious mechanical issues. Meanwhile, costs are almost twice the originally promised amounts, reaching over $1.7 billion per ship – 2 to 3 times as much as many foreign LPDs like the Rotterdam Class, and more than 10 times as much as Singapore’s 6,600 ton Endeavour Class LPD...

• LPD-17 San Antonio Class: Capabilities and Features
• LPD-17 San Antonio Class: Process & Issues
• LPD-17 San Antonio Class: Program, Budgets & Timelines
• LPD-17 San Antonio Class: Contracts and Events (1996-Present) [updated]
• Appendix A: Additional Readings & Sources – LPD-17 Ship Class
• Appendix B: Additional Readings & Sources – News and Views
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• It’s not just the pending US FY13 President Budget that won’t reflect sequestration, the 5-year Future Years Defense Program (FYDP) projection won’t either, based on an Office of Management and Budget (OMB) document seen by Bloomberg. OMB states this is still “pre-decisional material” though, but this matches our expectation that budgets made of a relatively flat DoD baseline and a reduced OCO (i.e. war spending) line item are the mostly likely outcome in the next few years. But because of that cloud of uncertainty some firms plan to increase the share of their revenue coming from civilian customers.

• The Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) sent a letter to US SecDef Leon Panetta to push back against the Pentagon’s attempt to shift more project risk on contractors. The latest F-35 contract negotiations are no doubt prominently in their mind.

• US Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) is using predictive modeling to “compare manpower to flight rate [and recommend] employee workloads and tracks daily activity to proactively identify bottlenecks or constraints” on the CH-53K program.

• The US DoD will host a public meeting in Washington DC on Jan. 12, 2012 on the use of open source software in its contracts. They want to assess risks such as potential copyright infringement liability or performance and warranty deficiencies that would leave contractors without recourse.

• Raytheon bought Pikewerks Corporation, the latest of a long string of acquisitions in the cybersecurity realm.

• SAIC’s Q3 shows a flat topline and an 8% revenue decrease in the defense sector because of “the termination of the U.S. Army Brigade Combat Team Modernization contract, the June 2011 completion and delivery of the CityTime system, and reduced activity on an infrastructure support services program for the Department of Defense (DoD).”

• India’s state-controlled shipyard modernizations are behind in their modernization, and that’s hurting a number of programs. The private sector might be able to help, if India lets it.

• A shortage of Eurofighters for training & certification exercises is delaying the handover of Britain’s 1st A330 Voyager aerial tanker.

• The UK’s Department for Transport issues “Interim guidance to UK flagged shipping on the use of armed guards to defend against the threat of piracy in exceptional circumstances”. As armed guards continue to work, official resistance continues to weaken.

• 2011 in review as seen by Australian Minister for Defence Materiel Jason Clare.

(click to visit)

2 more firms added. (Nov 9/11)

In September 2011, US Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Pacific in Pearl Harbor, HI awarded a new emergency engineering and infrastructure umbrella contract to 4 firms. Up to $900 million could be up for grabs among the 4 qualifying firms, over a 5 year period (base year + 4 option years), ending in September 2016 at the latest.

This is an indefinite-delivery/ indefinite-quantity multiple award contract for the purchase of “short-term facility support services with incidental construction” in support of natural disasters; humanitarian efforts; the full range of military actions; and incumbent breaks in service at various locations throughout the world. NAVFAC has issued similar contracts before: a $500 million contract that ran from 2005-2009 came in handy a few times, in response to disasters like hurricane Katrina. This one could involve work on…

Taking on the Cyber Enemy

DARPA’s programs. (Nov 8/11)

In response to the growing threats to US military and civilian networks, the Pentagon has unveiling its first formal cyber strategy.

This follows a series of events over the last few years that have escalated cyber attacks against networks and infrastructure to warlike events. For example, an unidentified foreign national penetrated the internal networks of the Department of Defense (DoD) with an infected thumbdrive in 2008. In 2009, a virus known as Stuxnet, suspected of being the product of Israeli-US government collaboration, shutdown an Iranian nuclear power plant. And in 2011, defense contractor Lockheed Martin suffered a major cyber attack that was suspected of being carried out by the Chinese government.

While the Pentagon has struggled to combat these threats, it has also had to fight some within its own ranks, as well as other agencies, for authority in cyberspace. This article focuses on the growing cyber threat to US military and civilian infrastructure and the efforts being made by the Pentagon to deal with these threats.

• Stuxnet and Beyond
• The China Connection
• The Best Defense is Offense
• Attribution: The Devil’s in the Details
• Cyber Turf Wars
• Integration Efforts
• Future War
• Key Contacts
• Additional Reading
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